Monday, December 27, 2010

We’ve had a new visitor lately, a Flying Squirrel that of course I’ve named Rocky. (You’re old enough to remember why, right?) He (or she) appears just about every night between 9:45 and 10:00 and only stays long enough to fill his cheek pouches with sunflower seeds just once and then disappears until the following night.

I haven’t seen one of these things in years and it’s quite a novelty to me. It has the complete opposite attitude to the daytime red squirrels that used to drive me crazy before they learned to stay away or else. Those characters would just keep hauling seed until it was all gone and were always nervous for some reason… heh, heh, heh. This little fellow will watch us, looking in through the windows while we watch him looking out through the windows. If I open the door to the deck he takes off fast enough but as long as we study him quietly he appears to be doing the same to us.

I hope he hangs around a while as he fits in quite nicely with the neighborhood. He's quiet, not greedy, minds his own business and is just a good friend so far. I hope it stays that way.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

“It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses… hit it.”I once worked up an entire presentation on proper planning for the Lions Clubs based on this quote from The Blues Brothers. Their methods were a little out of the ordinary but who wants to be bored and stick to the same old routine anyway.

You see, this is the time of year when I traditionally set out some goals for the period to come. I have to admit that I didn’t hit my 2010 targets but I guess I can’t complain too much… for a change. We helped some people make some extra money and made a couple dollars ourselves and that’s generally a good thing on the old balance sheet right? I had planned on moving up a rung on the ladder in my business but instead actually took a couple steps back. This was a bit of a surprise but still an accepted reality and there are no regrets because I know that this is one of the best businesses in the world to be in and just keeps on getting better all the time.

I worked for the same company for thirty-five years and have no regrets about that either but the reality is that if I’d started doing then what I’m doing now I could easily have retired in 1978 instead 2008. These days I set my own hours, determine my own salary, take vacations when I want, stay home all day if I want and at the same time I get to help other people move ahead in their lives.

So… what do we set down for 2011? I’m trying out a couple new advertising avenues that are really working out well. They are much cheaper and I’m getting just as many prospects coming into the chain as through the more expensive methods. I’ll be scheduling more time and effort to help others advance and will be concentrating less on my own bottom line and more on theirs. Their victory will also be mine and can you say WIN-WIN?

Anyway, regardless of who you are or what you are doing if you haven’t got some definite goals written down and preferably stuck up on the wall somewhere to be seen every day well… you just have yourself a nice routine year.

As “Canada’s 12th Wonder” Manitoulin Island holds a number of Canadian and world distinctions that we encourage you to explore when you visit our area.
This blog is a collection of personal ramblings, comments and observations gathered first while traveling around the country for The North West Company and now during my retirement years on Manitoulin Island as an Independent Associate with Watkins. Feel free to comment, I thank you for stopping by and hope to hear from you soon!